Zurich — Richemont subsidiary Cartier’s exhibit at Geneva’s luxury watch show is usually packed with lavish, gem-encrusted timepieces costing $100,000 or more. This year, most of the display cases in the 170-year-old jewellery maker’s main hall were filled with variations of one single model: the Panthere, which will go on sale in June for as little as $4,000. Cartier’s subdued display illustrates the more sober mood of Swiss watchmakers as they showcase their wares at the fair this week. Vacheron Constantin said it was holding back on store openings amid job cuts, while Panerai was cutting its distribution network by as much as 10%. The retrenchment has been welcomed by investors, who have driven shares of watchmakers higher this year on the hope the worst may be over. "Everything is still fragile," Vacheron Constantin CEO Juan-Carlos Torres said in an interview. "We’re more optimistic than last year, but not too much." The Swiss watchmaking industry is emerging from its longest sl...
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